Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition - Guide
Samugol December 2020
Contents
1 Introduction 5
2 Creating a Source Hunter 6
2.1 Classes . . . . 7
2.2 Attributes . . . . 7
2.3 Talents . . . . 8
2.4 Spending Ability Points . . . . 13
2.5 Weapons . . . . 14
2.6 Two-Handed vs Dual Wield . . . . 15
2.7 Bows vs Crossbows . . . . 15
2.8 Wands . . . . 17
2.9 Defense . . . . 18
2.10 Personality . . . . 20
2.11 Craftsmanship . . . . 21
2.12 Nasty Deeds . . . . 22
2.13 Skills . . . . 23
2.14 Aerothurge . . . . 24
2.14.1 Novice Aerothurge . . . . 24
2.14.2 Adept Aerothurge . . . . 25
2.14.3 Master Aerothurge . . . . 25
2.15 Geomancer . . . . 26
2.15.1 Novice Geomancer . . . . 26
2.15.2 Adept Geomancer . . . . 27
2.15.3 Master Geomancer . . . . 28
2.16 Pyrokinetic . . . . 29
2.16.1 Novice Pyrokinetic . . . . 29
2.16.2 Adept Pyrokinetic . . . . 30
2.16.3 Master Pyrokinetic . . . . 31
2.17 Hydrosophist . . . . 31
2.17.1 Novice Hydrosophist . . . . 31
2.17.2 Adept Hydrosophist . . . . 32
2.17.3 Master Hydrosophist . . . . 33
2.18 Witchcraft . . . . 33
2.18.1 Novice Witchcraft . . . . 33
2.18.2 Adept Witchcraft . . . . 34
2.18.3 Master Witchcraft . . . . 35
2.19 Man at Arms . . . . 36
2.19.1 Novice Man at Arms . . . . 36
2.19.2 Adept Man at Arms . . . . 37
2.19.3 Master Man at Arms . . . . 39
2.20 Expert Marksman . . . . 39
2.20.1 Novice Expert Marksman . . . . 39
2.20.2 Adept Expert Marksman . . . . 40
2.20.3 Master Expert Marksman . . . . 41
2.21 Scoundrel . . . . 42
2.21.1 Novice Scoundrel . . . . 42
2.21.2 Adept Scoundrel . . . . 44
2.21.3 Master Scoundrel . . . . 44
2.22 Skill Scaling . . . . 44
2.22.1 Man at Arms Skill Scaling . . . . 45
2.22.2 Expert Marksman Skill Scaling . . . . 45
2.22.3 Pyrokinetic Skill Scaling . . . . 45
2.22.4 Geomancer Skill Scaling . . . . 46
2.23 Traits . . . . 46
2.23.1 Pragmatic vs Romantic . . . . 47
2.23.2 Independent vs Obedient . . . . 48
2.23.3 Hearltess vs Compassionate . . . . 49
2.23.4 Altruistic vs Egotistical . . . . 50
2.23.5 Materialistic vs Spiritualistic . . . . 50
2.23.6 Righteous vs Renegade . . . . 51
2.23.7 Bold vs Cautious . . . . 52
2.23.8 Forgiving vs Vindictive . . . . 53
2.23.9 Blunt vs Considerate . . . . 53
3 General Combat Tips 54 3.1 Initiative . . . . 54
3.2 AP Management . . . . 55
3.3 Battle tactics . . . . 56
3.4 Consumable Items . . . . 58
3.4.1 Special arrows . . . . 58
3.4.2 Grenades . . . . 58
3.4.3 Scrolls . . . . 58
3.5 Planning . . . . 60
4 Builds 61
4.1 Good Build Definition . . . . 61
4.2 Samugol . . . . 62
4.2.1 Scrolls vs Regular Skills . . . . 63
4.2.2 Appearance . . . . 63
4.2.3 Class Selection . . . . 64
4.2.4 Attributes . . . . 64
4.2.5 Character Creation . . . . 65
4.2.6 Skill Finalization . . . . 66
4.2.7 Abilities and Talents Finalized . . . . 68
4.2.8 Level Progression . . . . 70
4.2.9 Equipment and Playstyle . . . . 71
4.2.10 Summary . . . . 72
4.2.11 Suggested Traits, Roleplay . . . . 74
4.3 Anna . . . . 74
4.3.1 Appearance . . . . 75
4.3.2 Class Selection . . . . 75
4.3.3 Attributes . . . . 75
4.3.4 Character Creation . . . . 76
4.3.5 Skill Finalization . . . . 77
4.3.6 Abilities and Talents Finalized . . . . 78
4.3.7 Level Progression . . . . 79
4.3.8 Equipment and Playstyle . . . . 81
4.3.9 Suggested Traits . . . . 81
4.4 Companions . . . . 81
4.4.1 Crafter . . . . 82
4.4.2 Trader . . . . 82
4.4.3 Thief . . . . 83
4.4.4 Combatant . . . . 84
5 Gold and Crafting 85 5.1 Making gold . . . . 85
5.1.1 Getting Rich Early . . . . 86
5.1.2 Making Real Gold . . . . 87
5.1.3 Potions . . . . 87
5.1.4 Weapons . . . . 88
5.1.5 Armors . . . . 89
5.1.6 Other Profitable Items . . . . 90
5.1.7 How to Sell Profitably . . . . 90
5.1.8 Food and What Not to Buy . . . . 92
5.2 Craftsmanship for Characters . . . . 92
5.2.1 Buying Things . . . . 93
5.2.2 Useful Grenades . . . . 93
5.2.3 Useful Arrows . . . . 94
5.2.4 Various Useful Items . . . . 94
5.2.5 Making Your Weapons . . . . 96
5.2.6 Making Your Armors . . . . 97
6 Other General Tips 98 7 Honour Mode Walkthrough 102 7.1 Cyseal . . . 102
7.1.1 Side Quests . . . 102
7.1.2 First Fight at the Stairs . . . 108
7.1.3 The Tutorial Area . . . 108
7.1.4 Drunk Legionaires . . . 108
7.1.5 Ogre Invasion on the Beach . . . 108
7.1.6 Beneath Cyseal . . . 108
7.1.7 West Gate and Getting to the Lighthouse . . . 109
7.1.8 North Gate and Arhu’s Sparkmaster 5000 . . . 110
7.1.9 Secluded Beach . . . 111
7.1.10 Evelyn’s Lair . . . 112
7.1.11 Beach with Orcs . . . 113
7.1.12 Inside the Black Cove . . . 113
7.1.13 Fire Planes . . . 116
7.1.14 Abandoned Villa . . . 116
7.1.15 Church Area . . . 117
7.2 Luculla Forest . . . 119
7.2.1 Side Quests . . . 119
7.2.2 First Time in Luculla Forest . . . 122
7.2.3 Inside White Witches House . . . 123
7.2.4 Clearing Orcs and Goblins . . . 123
7.2.5 Luculla Mines . . . 123
7.2.6 Infiltrating the Immaculates 1 . . . 124
7.2.7 Cave of Portals . . . 125
7.2.8 Wandering Around the Sandy Area . . . 125
7.2.9 Sacred Stone, Immaculate Village . . . 125
7.2.10 Infiltrating the Immaculates 2 . . . 126
7.2.11 Finishing Luculla Forest . . . 126
7.3 Hiberheim . . . 126
7.3.1 Side Quests . . . 126
7.3.2 Finding the Assistant . . . 127
7.3.3 Entering the Frost Area . . . 127
7.3.4 Exploring Around . . . 128
7.3.5 King Boreas and the White Witch . . . 129
7.4 Phantom Forest . . . 130
7.4.1 Side Quests . . . 130
7.4.2 First Time in Phantom Forest . . . 132
7.4.3 Cassandra and Arhu . . . 133
7.4.4 Belleghar and Other Stuff . . . 133
7.4.5 Source Temple . . . 134
7.5 Point Of No Return, End Game . . . 134
7.5.1 Entering the Last Portal . . . 134
7.5.2 Leandra Fight . . . 135
7.5.3 Death Knights . . . 135
7.5.4 Final Dragon . . . 135
1 Introduction
I began to play Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition only because I was curious about Divinity Original Sin 2 and wanted to freshen up on some lore.
However, as I played I realized that this game is simply amazing and it defined some of the things I consider essential in a good RPG.
If someone had asked me before what my favorite game was I would have said Gothic 2 or something similar, but now I think it is this game. It is by no means perfect. Story could certainly be better, I prefer realistic dark fantasy worlds to a cartoon like art style, traps and specifically some environmental puzzles are infuriating as well and do not let me get started on some weird humor that is found here (Really? When I ask the statue about my future it shows me the game’s credits?). Despite these shortcomings this game is simply spectacular.
Graphics are beautiful, controls are easy and smooth, crafting is probably my favorite out of any game I have played and combat, character progression and side content are simply amazing. And all of this is in a well optimized, bug free package. I really love this game.
I played through it with my brother and then my friend and a lot of it was lost on me (we often rushed). I then wanted to play through it by myself because I was curious about some quests and mechanics and I just wanted to document my findings in case I replay it in the future. Before I knew it these notes blew out into a complete guide pretty much about everything. So here it is.
Oh yeah, I am sure someone may be offended by some of the opinions here, but I write things as I experienced them. It is very much possible that someone found some amazing ability combo based on something that I dismissed outright.
I had several moments where I though ”this is utterly useless” only to have an eureka moment in the next playthrough ”how could I not see the awesomeness of this”.
There are many ways to play the game (I have tried quite a few of them though) and enjoy it, so to each their own. It is a single player game and there is no real need to min max everything to oblivion. Even when I write something is ”bad” or ”not viable” take it with a pinch of salt. Naturally, this is a guide so it may contain minor spoilers when describing some skills/tactics and major spoilers in the Honour Mode walkthrough and quest sections (which I am currently in the process of writing, I am level 12 and I think once you get to this point, it is easy, but I wanted to finish it-especially some quests and combat encounters that could be difficult).
Of course, I am sure that not everything is perfect. This guide is likely to have a lot of typos and the format could be much better. It is a first project of mine of such a scale. I like to use Latex for formatting since I am a mathemati-
cian, but some things may look a bit weird. If you find some major mistakes, or you completely disagree with some statements, be sure to let me know. I love constructive criticism. It is also extremely subjective, so I am 100% sure that some peoples opinions may differ from the ones presented here.
Oh yeah, I played this game on PC, PS4 and Xbox Series X (I bought it on a PC so I can play with my friend in Germany, then I bought it for PS4 so I could play with my brother and finally, I purchased it for the new Xbox, because I like to sit in a sofa when I play and take advantage of the new faster load times). The only thing of note that I noticed is that on Xbox Series X the game’s menus are a bit weird and moved slightly to the right. That means you cannot see what is the category you are at, but this is a very minor issue that has no impact on gameplay (I might play this game on PS5 just to see whether it has the same problem). The reason I am saying this is to emphasize that this guide is suitable for every platform.
Finally, you will not find everything that is available on wikis (of course there is a lot of overlap, that cannot be avoided). If I talk about some skill for example, I am not going to say exactly how many APs it costs, what level is needed to use it and what intellect you need to have it at 100%. Things like this are on wikis do not be lazy and just look it up. What I provide is a much more personalized comment about the effectiveness of the skill, my experience with it and whether I would advise to get it or not etc. I think that the strongest point of this guide is the fact that you do not have to browse through all the information available out there. This guide is still quite large but you should find pretty much anything you need to have a fun and immersive playthrough.
You do not have to look at 50 pages of all the crafting recipes, I just provide you with what matters and you can come back to playing. Naturally most people will be familiar with some things here, just look at the table of contents and go to what you are most interested in, nobody is telling you to read the whole thing.
2 Creating a Source Hunter
Now I have played and finished the game numerous times and I can say that there is certainly more than one way to play. However, there are some very specific ideas and builds that are quite frankly superior to others. Here are some basic ideas, on which some builds can be easily built upon. You will also see UPDATE: icon, which signifies that something has changed in the way I view that particular idea/ability/item etc. Sure I could just delete the older notion and correct it, but this way you are able to see what sort of thought process I had and what led me to the conclusion presented. If you are interested in something particular just see the table of contents.
2.1 Classes
The only thing that classes offer is starting equipment. If you want to be a mage, it may not be best to start with Wayfarer class that starts with a crossbow.
Other than that they play no impact whatsoever. Pick what class looks cool to you and then hand pick other things based on some advice from this guide.
2.2 Attributes
You get to allocate 5 attribute points at character creation and then +1 attribute point every even level. Most people will get 15 attribute points through the course of the game. Fortunately there are also two books that each give +1 attribute point and there are many, many items that can also provide very nice attribute bonuses. Just having two swords, one each with Tormented Soul gives bonuses worth of 8 attribute points. Be mindful what you pick but there is no need to panic, you can often completely negate a questionable attribute point allocation through some nice gear selection (although if you spend 10 attribute points in perception there is just no helping you).
• Strength(STR) - I would say it is pretty important, I am a strong believer in using Rage on pretty much every character and that needs 10 STR, STR also makes things easier to carry. Some of the better armors also requires quite a bit of STR so I really think that this should be about 8-10 even for characters that do not use melee weapons. Do not forget the +2 bonus from the Tormented Soul on the main weapon. If you plan to use melee weapon be ready to put a lot of points here because this attribute determines whether or not you can use the best weapons and how much dmg they deal.
• Dexterity(DEX) - This should be maxed on ranged crossbow/bow charac- ters, it increases the dmg with those weapons (and their skills) and whether you can even use them. It is also very important for some Scoundrel skills so they have no chance of failing.
• Intelligence(INT) - I would say that everyone needs something around 6- 8 intellect to use all the necessary novice skills. Dedicated spell casters should have it as high as possible because it determines not only the dmg of their skills, but also how likely it is for that skill to succeed (for exam- ple Freezing Touch is 100% to freeze an enemy, minus their Bodybuilding resistance at INT 8, if I increase my INT to 12 now my chance to succeed is 120%, making it more likely to freeze someone than before). It also lowers the cooldown of INT based skills.
• Speed(SPD) - It determines how many APs (action points) you have.
Those are very important because you use them for every action you take in battle. More APs mean more things you can do in a single turn, bit it moving, attacking, using an item etc. In my experience it is a bit superior to PER because PER only increases start APs, this increases both start
APs and turn APs, so if you want more APs and are not very interested in your ranged hit chance (how likely you are to hit someone who is far with a regular auto-attack) and how high your critical chance is, this is the attribute you want.
• Constitution(CON) - I always ignored it, but I think it has its place in Honour Mode, not only it increases health but it also increases maximum APs (by 1 point after 7). Not an early priority though. UPDATE1: I am starting to think this could be more important than SPD. If a character has high armor and resistances, they are able to tank very effectively. It then becomes a question of how many APs I can use before I die. With SPD, you are squishier, but have more APs per turn, with CON you are able to withstand a lot more dmg, before things go south. Having high CON means you can heal more effectively, allowing you to stay in the fight longer (so you technically have more APs than with high SPD). It depends on how well you are able to tank. If you can tank effectively with the health you have, SPD is superior. If you are able to tank let us say 2 times more before dying, then CON is better. I say play normally and adjust accordingly. UPDATE2: I invested 2 ability points in SPD early on and I think CON would be better. I was already close to dying once and the +1AP per turn has very little impact at this stage of the game.
30-40% health increase plays a big role early on, when you are much more vulnerable. I think SPD is better saved for later game, CON is better in the early game.
• Perception(PER) - It increases start APs and critical chance, but also the chance to hit enemies that are far. It helps with trap detection. Probably the attribute I would just leave alone on most characters, but it certainly has its place in some builds. You will get +2 from a Scope on a main bow/crossbow so you will get some nice boost later on if you decide to use a ranged weapon. There are some builds that like to have high crit chance, but even for those I would rather focus on their respective weapon skill (Crossbow, Two-Handed ) rather than on PER because getting +1%
crit chance for +1PER is not that great and you can certainly spend your attribute points better.
2.3 Talents
Talents help shape your character. They provide some bonuses or fundamentally change how you play. I think that each person should choose what they like as most talents do not make or break a build as their effects are relatively minor.
Also you can exchange a talent for one ability point later on (there will be a demon that can help you respec and do some other character alterations), which I think is terrible, do not do that. There is no particular order here. I commented on these talents as I used them. If the talent is not here it is either because it is completely useless from the description or because I have not tried
it. At character creation you can choose 2 and you get 7 through the course of the whole game. I would choose carefully.
• Pinpoint - At least one character should have this, grenades are absolutely deadly until mid game and should be used as much as possible. I do not play without them, so much tactics and fun. This talent makes it so they always land where you want them to.
• Slingshot - It helps to throw those grenades far. Very useful, I do not play a grenade thrower without it. This is a good time to point out that I feel that only one character needs to be the grenadier. Sure you could make everyone into a grenade thrower, but I think that is an overkill.
• Lone Wolf - I like to have more APs, more health and more ability points.
Therefore I like to choose this at least on my main character. I am well aware of the fact that having a Lone Wolf character is worse than having 2 regular characters, but I like to pick this to differentiate ME in the game somehow. Also, if you are playing with someone I think that doing a dual Lone Wolf playthrough is tons of fun. If you are however looking for the best possible party, do not get this talent.
• Pet Pal - I am starting to think this is a must, there is just too many animals, quests, experience, puzzles etc. you could not do properly or straight out miss. UPDATE: I do not play without this anymore. There are so many fun quests, traits, items, tips etc. From now on I will always pick this.
• Far Out Man - +2m is really nice on skills and scrolls, I confirmed that it does not work with Expert Marksman skills though, still very useful.
Especially with touch skills and spell that have lower effective distance.
Certainly one of the better talents.
• Zombie - I have mixed feelings about this one. You can put essences (var- ious essences stack for a complete essence proofing) on gear that protects from every element. There is only physical dmg, poison dmg and tene- brium dmg that can really hurt after some nice crafting. Zombie takes care of poison completely. There are various encounters where enemies use poison which now heals you, not to mention all the traps, surfaces and other stuff that heals you too. There is a problem though, there is the issue with burst healing. While a good healing potion can easily heal you for 80% of your health for 2APs, there is not really a good way to heal as a Zombie character in battle. Sure you can make a poison cloud with a grenade but that is likely to explode and it does not heal you by very much, any poison surface you make usually ends up on fire too. There are skills/special arrows, but they cost more APs than potions and usually need to be used by someone else to target you. I was going to say that this is probably worth it until the final fight, where Astarte started to
”heal” my brother and killed him in the process (he had Zombie talent).
It could go either way but I am inclined to say that it is not worth it really.
UPDATE: I found out that if you have a really tanky character with lots of armor and elemental resists it is pretty much impossible to get seriously hurt by any attack, and it is super easy to get a Large Poison Bottle, that perpetually heals whatever dmg everyone can do to you every turn. This argument though is kind of moot, because with that build you can just keep getting hit until you are down to 50% of your HP after several enemy turns and then just pop a regular HP potion. As far as poison resistance goes, there are items that protect from poison dmg, there is a potion that provides 40% poison resistance too. I have concluded that Zombie can be a nice flavor if you want to play a necromancer or something, but you can get by without it. UPDATE2: In short, characters that are very tanky benefit from this talent as they do not require burst healing, also yes there is poison resist gear but it is so much pain to find and worry about, and I do not mean to craft or something. You find an amazing sarong, but it does not have poison resistance. You find amazing boots but there is no poison resistance. You would like to use a stat boosting amulet, but no poison resistance. Poison is one of the most prominent dmg types in the game and having complete immunity would be worth it by itself, but now you also get healed by it. You have so much more freedom when selecting proper gear too. I am now convinced that you can have a full Zombie party and it is better than a non-Zombie party, it does require planning, crafting and it should be picked later though. It certainly is not for everyone but I cannot play without this anymore. And yes, this talent was a roller coaster for me until I finally settled.
• Bigger and Better - One extra attribute point is always welcome, especially on jack of all trades builds that like to do more things. It is a small help, but it is help nonetheless.
• Comeback Kid - When someone dies, things are probably really dire, hav- ing them not die when they should could be useful, but I prefer to play in a way that I do not die in the first place. UPDATE: I tested this more and the talent needs 5 points in Willpower only making it available very late game, making it obsolete for the better part of the game. Also I think that no character should get Willpower 5 (I will explain later). It can be somewhat interesting on a Zombie or Leech character. You heal through poison/blood every round. All in all though I think it is a rather weak tal- ent even with Zombie/Leech talents. There are pretty much no instances where you would get hit, this would trigger and the round would end so you can heal automatically and could repeat this. The blow that would kill you (but does not because of this talent) is usually followed by lots of other blows because there are multiple enemies and they hit multiple times, and you can be sure that those will kill you even with this talent.
Madora has it as a starting talent so it is kinda of nice, but I would just stay away from this one.
• Morning Person - Similarly to Comeback Kid when people die it is bad, but resurrecting at full HP is certainly worthwhile and the requirements to get it are not as steep. It is worth it that much more on characters that can take the punishment, rather than glass cannons. I managed to get by without it though. I remember my first playthrough with my brother and we were dying a lot, this came in handy. If you decide to make use of Zombie, this is a full burst heal that you would normally have access to.
So I say very much worth it with Zombie, not as great otherwise.
• Elemental Ranger - I read to stay away from this one, because oftentimes you will heal the monster (ice elemental standing on ice, fire on lava etc.) UPDATE: Yes it is true, you heal the enemy. The amount of dmg it brings is rather small, I am sure that some people like it, but I am not a fan.
• Elemental Affinity - I like it, because it is an advantage without any drawbacks. However, there are some issues with it. You only get the effect if you are standing on the respective surface. If you want to cast Witchraft skills you must be standing in blood, which may or may not happen. Many surfaces are also pretty hazardous. It is generally very dangerous to be standing in oil (can be lit up), water and blood (both can be electrified). We are not even going to talk about fire and electrified surface which require relevant immunities (Burning, Stunned ). However, if you can overcome these, many of your skills will be cheaper to use and that is quite an advantage.
• Glass Cannon - +4AP per turn seems great, but losing half of your health is not. I am already struggling a bit with more squishy party members early on so I do not think it is worth it early in the game. However, if you have a character that attacks from far away and is usually out of danger (like some of the builds suggested later), it can be great. Later on when you can put a few points into CON and have great armor and resists, it is amazing. Think about it, +4AP is almost worth 8 points in SPD, that is not something you can just totally neglect, especially since you use APs during every fight, your HP comes into play only when things are not going that well, making it a superior attribute in my opinion.
• Know it All - Pretty much OK on a character that does not do the talking, +1INT is nice, but it is nothing game changing. If you are struggling with attribute points it can help. If not, there are better picks.
• Light Stepper - I honestly am not sure, there are plenty of traps so it is tempting, but I never died from a trap springing because all my characters are very tanky with good resists. UPDATE: It was pointed out to me that beginning traps can be the end of many adventurers so I think that this talent is best on some companion that has good enough PER if you really worry about traps. Not really worth it on main characters though. I think that every time you are going somewhere where it looks suspicious (Chest and barrel of oil next to it...) just pick a single character to check
it out. If they blow up and survive, nice. If they die, you resurrect them with plentiful scrolls. Either way, it is not really a problem. What I find annoying is even when the trap is spotted I walk over it either way because I cannot react fast enough, further decreasing the value of this talent.
• Sidestep - 10% to evade helps with survivablity a bit, but that is exactly what that is, a tiny bit. There are better choices, especially since you need Expert Marksman 5 to get this.
• Bully - Now this talent is really interesting because setting Knocked Down, Crippled and Slowed statuses is really easy and it provides a huge 50%
dmg boost. The problem is that this only works on auto-attacks, not skills. I tested this extensively. So is it worth it? I am not sure, there are not that many amazing talents, and if the character uses some kind of heavy hitting weapon (crossbows, two-handers, dual wielding etc.) for auto-attacks often, certainly get it. Otherwise, stay away.
• Arrow Recovery - A wasted point, I never had any issues with arrows.
Gold is plentiful, so are crafting ingredients.
• All skilled Up - 2 points for abilities are nice, certainly better than some other terrible talents. UPDATE: Really great on non-Lone Wolf charac- ters early on.
• Courageous - A risky trade off, immunity to Fear for inability to Flee.
Some people cry that immunity to Fear can be acquired through the Spiritual trait. I am one of those people that really hates when I am supposed to choose a dialogue option I disagree with just for a trait, so I use this talent. Of course others might not need to.
• Demon - This is when you want to be healed through fire. I made my main character use it and it is fun. Certainly not for every character as you need Pyrokinetic 4 to get it and quite a specialized build. Do not expect some crazy healing though, it is more of a novelty than anything else. At level 15 a Meteor Shower dos not heal even for 150HP (you are small and many meteors miss so it is random). if you use Explode at this stage, I healed for about 30-40HP.
• Fire Star Diner - I had a great plan, you can poison food. Food heals for up to 15-20%, double that and you strong healing option for Zombie char- acters, circumventing its pretty much only disadvantage. Only problem...
it does not work. Poison food works the same way as poison bottles. Heals you randomly for a few rounds. Not making it a great healing option. You are better off drinking a regular Large Poison Bottle as it lasts longer and costs less APs. It is pointless even on regular characters, because it is easy to get a lot more effective potion that cost 1AP less to use than food, making this totally pointless no matter how hard I tried.
• Leech - I suppose a super tanky character that takes very little dmg could be made more sustainable but... super tanky character can then just use a potion or something. However, I agree that together with Zombie (and being poisoned for a few turns), lots of armor and elemental resists it can make a character pretty much indestructible, but I think that that is a bit over the top. Some people pick it in hopes that their squishy character will be less squishy, but that is like getting a 100$ BMW discount. If you are not tanky with great elemental resists, the healing effect will amount to pretty much nothing.
• Stand Your Ground - If you manage to get Bodybuilding 5, immunity to knockdown could be nice, that being said, you are very likely to resist pretty much every knockdown at that point anyway because of how high your Bodybuilding is. Also Bodybuilding 5 is a total waste of points (again this is explained later).
• Thick Skin - if you are a tanky character this adds +8 armor with MaA level 3, with MaA level 5 it is +10 armor, but that is pointless. It is a bit of help into getting more armor but I do not think it is worth it. Especially later, the armor levels are high and +8 armor does very little. If you want to boost your armor use Leadership bonus, Large Armour Potion, Fortify or Melee Defensive Stance which you can technically use all at once for a whopping 67 armor bonus. If you want to achieve the highest armor possible in the game though, I will not stop you (but again overkill).
• My Precious - This helps with durability but I never heard of anyone having durability issues (just repair your gear, either by yourself or if you are lazy, use gold and let vendors do it), I know that someone tried to use it with the unique sword that petrifies enemies, but that is really nothing but an unreliable gimmick.
• Opportunist - If the enemy moves away from you get a free attack. This would be amazing if enemies were regularly moving away from you, they do not. Just think about it. Archers, mages and other ranged enemies are virtually unaffected by this. Then the melee enemies get close to your character and attack. They very rarely decide ”I don’t like this guy, I want to move half way across the battlefield to attack this other dude.” I don’t know, maybe it has something to do with my playstyle, I just never seen it proc enough to warrant a talent pick. People keep saying that it is good for front line fighters but I guess we have been playing a different game because even with those I do not see it triggering too often.
2.4 Spending Ability Points
At character creation you get 5 ability points. Then you get one ability point every level from level 2 to level 5. Then you get 2 ability points every level starting at level 6 to level 10. Finally you get 3 ability points every level starting
at level 11 until endgame (which is about level 20 for most). If you pick a Lone Wolf talent you always get one extra ability point per level. It should not be too hard to plan, just get a piece of paper and see if your dream character vision is achievable or whether you need to rethink some things.
You can spend these ability points to specialize your character. You choose between weapons (whether to specialize in some weapons), defense (things that protect you in some way), skills (the fun abilities and spells you use), personal- ity (bonuses for conversation, vendors, other teammates), craftsmanship (what you are able to make from the ingredients you find and buy) and nasty deeds (stealing mostly). We will look at each category more closely in the following section.
Also to purchase level one of any of these categories costs 1 ability point, to get to from level 1 to level 2 you need to now spend two points. From level 2 to level 3, three ability points are needed and so on. That means that if you really want to be good at something you need to spend lots of ability points. To get to Hydrosophist 5 you need to spend 15 ability points. To dab into something though, just a single point is needed. That is why I am a strong believer that every character should dab into something because it is cheap and it brings a lot of benefits.
2.5 Weapons
This covers all the available weapons in the game. Honestly pick what you like, all of them are viable (some more than others) and fun.
• Single-Handed - If you really like shields, or just want to use one weapon for roleplay this is the one. Each point here increases the damage you deal by 10%.
• Dual Wielding - This does not increase dmg, instead it lowers the AP cost penalty. If you attack as a dual wielder without any points in this, it will cost you 6APs, if you achieve Dual Wielding 5, you attack for 3APs.
Also, there is a penalty to dmg when you are dual wielding without any investment here which gets gradually lost the more you invest in this (so if you have no levels here it is better to attack with a single-handed weapon twice for 6APs rather than try to dual wield).
• Two-Handed - This does not increase dmg directly, but increases crit chance by 10% at first level only, then only by 4% every level until level 4. From level 4 to level 5 it is 3% crit chance increase and then from level 5 to level 6 it is only 2% increase capping at 27% crit chance at level 6.
• Bow - Same as Single-Handed but for bows.
• Crossbow - Same as Two-Handed but for crossbows
• Wand - Same as Single-Handed but for wands
• Tenebrium - I never found them to be very good, they are almost always in- ferior to crafted/bought weapons because they cannot be upgraded. Also, because they deal tenebrium dmg, they are terrible for the last section of the game. If you like them though, use them. I just never found them any good.
2.6 Two-Handed vs Dual Wield
Which is better? Which should you choose? Well, let me tell you straight away that you should choose what you like, because the differences are minor. Choose what is cooler for you, that is the best answer. If you are a power gamer, we can take a look at a bit more in-depth analysis.
Dual wielding provides more auto-attack dmg later on (about 20% more dmg per AP consumed) but requires quite a bit of investment (you need 15 ability points to max it and then possibly some piece of gear that pushes it even further). Two-handed on the other hand is powerful early on because it technically does not require any ability point investment, but lacks a little bit in late game even if you invest in Two-Handed. When I say lack, I am talking about auto-attack dmg per AP. Two-handed weapons deliver dmg in bursts (this becomes more consistent if you invest in Two-Handed to increase both crit chance and crit damage) which can be a big difference (you one shot the enemy) while dual wielding is more consistent dmg.
If you take a look at skills, Flurry and Whirlwind are always better with a two-handed weapon while Crippling Blow and Battering Ram are better for dual wielders. Some skills such as Crushing Fist do not matter as they are the same for every weapon (you do not use a weapon, you use your fist).
Two-handed has a substantial range advantage, you spend less APs to move and you can be sure you hit the enemy for the 4AP cost that is advertised.
On the other hand dual wielding suffers sometime. You think that you need 3APs to attack but 4APs are consumed instead because the character needs to move that one extra AP. This personally drives me crazy. Naturally, there are situations where enemies are so close that the range advantage is irrelevant.
I honestly think that which is better depends on an actual encounter: the number of enemies, how close they are, their HP and so on. In some situations dual wielding is better in others two-handed is better. Therefore I think that the original advice stands. Choose what you like best. I personally think that dual wielding is nothing but a Hollywood stunt and there is nothing nicer than a heavy armored character with a big ass weapon, but that is me. You choose what suits your fancy.
2.7 Bows vs Crossbows
Should I choose a bow or a crossbow? There have been some discussions before where people say that bows are better but I wanted to test this for myself. Skills and special arrows cost the same no matter what weapon uses them (except Ricochet ), auto-attacks are 1AP more expensive with a crossbow.
I tested it extensively, the general guide/internet consensus is that bows outperform crossbows and I agree. Because investing in Bow straight up gives +%dmg (+55% at max level) the bows are more powerful than crossbows whose skill only increases critical hit chance. ”So I should choose a bow you say!” It is not black and white. I crafted the level 16 bow and I compared it to level 16 crossbow I found. I chose level 16 because I think it is pointless to compare weapons at level 22 when the game is over. Instead I chose a level when you are pretty far into the game, but there is a decent chunk to play through, a more realistic experience for the majority of players. I looked at how much dmg the skills do (Barrage, Rain of Arrows and Arrow Spray were chosen I believe, but I only kept the number comparisons, so maybe they were some different skills, it does not matter though, you clearly have a skill and how two weapons compare) Here are the results:
Barrage Rain of Arrows Arrow Spray Crossbow: 424-665 1640-2571 284-443
Bow: 421-747 1627-2888 281-498
As you can see, bow is better, but there need to be 15 ability points invested so you have Bow 5. If you like to mostly use special arrows and skills, crossbow is much superior early on because your bow damage will be 50% lower until you gradually invest in Bow. Furthermore, if you choose crossbows instead of bows, you technically have 15 saved ability points that can be put anywhere you want (I still like to put some ability points into Crossbow but not nearly as many).
The skill dmg itself is not that much different between crossbows and bows at higher levels once you max Bow (hell base of those skills is even higher when using crossbow), so all those ”Crossbows are utterly useless.” statements are just poppycock.
How about auto-attacks? Auto-attacks on crossbows are amazing, because of their distance. Abilities such as Far Seer or Bless make this play style extremely viable. It does not take away from amazing special arrows and other abilities that you can still use. For a measly 1 ability point investment into Crossbow you get +10%crit chance with them and you are also able to capitalize on the Bully talent. I like to put my leftover points into Crossbow so I can get it a bit higher, but it is not a priority. What is your crossbow crit chance? 10%
from Crossbow 1 + 6% from a crossbow itself + 3% from Compassionate trait + 5% from Leadership 6 = 24% crit chance. Of course you can can invest into Crossbow more if you want, to possibly increase it over 40%. Bows have cheaper auto-attacks and deal more dmg consistently but do not crit as often. I have not crunched the numbers exactly to see which option is technically better for a single AP cost and honestly I do not care. You can choose what you like better and what looks cooler.
Crossbows do have a slight disadvantage though. Unlike bows which have great dmg and +SPD on them, crossbows seem like the best things you would want on them (Leadership, Willpower etc.) can only be acquired when buying them. So it is possible that you might have a level or two when the crossbow selection at merchants is not the best and you will have to wait another level
until some nice piece appears. Although by endgame you have access to many, many vendors and if you visit them frequently I am sure you can have your dream crossbow so this is really only a problem during earlier parts of the game. I still think it is worth it to use them if you want, it makes checking shops and getting loot more interesting rather than always crafting the best possible bow, looking for a cool weapon is exciting :D.
Conclusion: If you care about nothing but the best skill and special arrow dmg bows are the way to go. They also provide nice and consistent damage every time you attack, but you also have to invest pretty heavily into Bow for these statements to be true and your earlier game will be a bit more difficult.
If on the other you want to save lots of ability points and play around with attacking from further away then crossbows are the best. They are also more deadly early on. The lower dmg later in the game is not that substantial and you are still very deadly. You do not have to invest any ability points for crossbows to be effective (but I would at least spend 1 ability point because that 10% crit increase is an amazing bargain). If you want to see some big dmg numbers and do not mind that it comes in bursts rather than consistently you can invest further into Crossbow, but I would not go further than 4 as you really get diminishing returns for a lot of ability points. I am not going to lie, I like crossbows better. I think they are cooler (granted there may be some childhood trauma at play when I wanted a crossbow for my 10th birthday and did not get it) and bring some other interesting elements to play with. I can totally see why some people prefer bows though.
2.8 Wands
How about wands? Well, for those that want to play a death eater I do not have particularly good news. Wands certainly have some advantages:
• They never miss.
• They are ranged, so less walking required.
• They can have really nice stats, it is not uncommon to find an early wand that gives +2 attribute.
• They are cool.
• They provide extra skills, but this is also a disadvantage. Just think about it, you have a wand that gives you the ability to cast Fireball. However, if you do not have Pyrokinetic 3 you are heavily penalized if you want to use this, making in pretty much impossible to use effectively unless you invest in the relevant school. It is an advantage but not a big one.
• They can exploit elemental weaknesses, you see fire enemies? Just switch to an ice wand and you can wreck.
Unfortunately there are some serious disadvantages:
• You not only need to invest into Dual Wield but also Wand because for some reason Wand boosts the main hand wand dmg even when dual wield- ing. That means you would have to spend twice as many ability points as any other weapon to have decent dmg. That is a huge disadvantage.
• Their dmg is very low, especially later in the game. Even with all the invested points, you will be doing a lot less dmg than other weapons, and we are not talking 10% less dmg, we are talking at least 50% less dmg.
• There are no skills associated with wands. Every weapon has their skill tree, melee weapons have Man at Arms and bow/crossbows have Expert Marksman wands get nada.
• Physical dmg works on most enemies bar few special encounters, elemental dmg is much more likely to be completely useless. Yes, you can switch your wand for a different element, but that requires APs. It is easy to select a frost wand because you see that you are in a lava infested land and every enemy is on fire, but there are encounters where you do not see an apparent weakness, only after you start combat and switching weapons mid fight is really bad.
• Because of all of this switching, there will be wands that have a bonus skill that you will simply not be able to use. You will specialize in Hydrosophist and in Pyrokinetic but the moment you will take an air based wand you will not be able to take advantage of the skills it offers.
• You cannot improve wands, no extra dmg, no Tormented Souls.
• You spend a lot more gold if you want your wands to stay relevant. If you are a dual axe wielder, you can just reforge them every time you level up, sharpen them for free and spend 2 essences to get some extra dmg on. To get wands you need to buy 4 inert wands every level (you want to have each element available) and you need 4 different essences. Inert wands are very expensive, not to mention essences.
All in all, it is not like they are completely useless, you can play some wand wizard if you want and even have fun. The game is not that hard as to railroad you into one specific best power gamer option. However, I do feel that they really lack behind other weapons and while the differences between dual wielding/two- handed and bows/crossbows are very minor, there is a pretty big difference in power here.
2.9 Defense
These are the abilities that protect you. Some more than others though :D
• Bodybuilding - It helps with status effects. The really problematic ones are Knockdown and Freeze. It also helps with Bleeding, Blinded, Burning,
Crippled, Diseased, Drunk, Infectious Disease and Weak status effects.
While it is possible to remove these effects through skills if you invest in Bodybuilding you will never have to worry about those ever again. ”But it costs a lot of ability points, early on there is no guarantee that it will work because the % chance to resist is small and I would rather have lots of useful skills rather than this.” I heard this lots of time in various forums and it does bring some valid arguments. I agree that early on, ability points are better spent on skills because those can be used every battle. However, I disagree that you need to spent ”a lot of ability points”.
If you spend 3 ability points you get Bodybuilding 2. Then you have someone with Leadership 6 that is not that hard to achieve and you get +1Bodybuilding from that. You can also find some belt or sarong with +1Bodybuilding on them (or both :D). That gives you 4-5 Bodybuilding just for a 3 ability point investment. This will protect you quite well and you will not suffer from those annoying status effects pretty much ever again. With my Lone Wolf character I sometimes get Bodybuilding 3 just because I really hate being CCd. I would not disregard this like many other people tell you to do, you can still have plenty of skills and be effective with those while having impenetrable defense. So to summarize, early on you should not put too many points here and use scrolls and skills to deal with bad statuses, but you should put a couple of points here later on.
• Willpower - Helps with saving throws against Charmed, Cursed, Feared, Muted, Petrified, Slowed and Stunned status effects. Now there are some really dangerous effects here so I actually think that every character should have this at 2-3 with the rest from gear. You get +1Willpower from Lead- ership 6, you get +1Willpower from Independent trait or +2Willpower from Obedient trait if there is someone that has high Leadership. That once again puts you into 4-5 range with just 3 ability points invested.
Just do it. I honestly do not know how some people play without this or Bodybuilding. You spend 6 ability points in grand total and you pretty much never have to worry about statues. Sure sometimes you might get some bad status, but that is exactly why you have scrolls and this way you really only need a few, not 50 of them. Also if you utilize some equipment, traits, Leadership you can see immediate effects even early on, no need to wait until endgame.
• Armor Specialist - Crafted armor has exactly the same armor value as bought armor of the same level when it is improved (but later, bought ar- mor becomes slightly better). Armor in shops however, has certain advan- tages. Later on, it has attribute bonuses (you can easily find +2 attribute on it), it has immunities to status effects and various resistances. It has a disadvantage though, it penalizes movement more than crafted armor and once improved on an anvil, crafted armor is around +1.0 movement bonus while bought armor is around +0.1 movement (there are however very few rare bought armors around level 19-20, that have superior movement than
crafted armor, but they are very few). You can upgrade them both with plate scraps which help more than scale scraps. You can either use Ruby or essences to apply elemental resistances, but since bought armor usually has some resistances already, those will be made higher. Some of the best armors in the game need Armor Specialist 3. Therefore I would definitely consider putting 6 ability points in it to use the best possible armor and a bit of extra armor rating. I would not put any points here early because the armor rating you gain is so miniscule and you have better things to unlock early on, plus there are no early armors that require Armor Special- ist. So should you invest in this? I would say that keep the points ready for Armor Specialist later in the game and if you find some armor with great attributes, something good like immunity to Stunned and tenebrium resistance, sure. Spending 6 ability points for Armor Specialist 3 is better, because you will get 2 attribute points, immunity and potentially some useful resistance (tenebrium is best later on because you cannot put it on gear yourself) and maybe even better movement. If you get lucky with the right armor late game, it is absolutely worth it. However, if you value movement very much or do not want to be bothered by lots of shopping to find some decent armor then I say you are better of not spending points into Armor Specialist and use them for something else, or simply to boost your attributes with demon (3 ability point = 1 attribute point).
• Shield Specialist - I tried to like shields in this game but I just cannot.
Early block chance is really bad (you will not be able to get higher than 30%) so it never is a reliable way of protecting yourself. What is way worse though is that majority of opponents use special skills, grenades, arrows etc. none of which can be blocked by a shield. I tried a playthrough with a shield and I swear that I had about 42% block chance, level 13 or so I have ”blocked” about 3 times until that point. If you CC enemies like I do (you should definitely exercise at least some level of CC), they simply do not attack you much. Some say that shields help with elemental resists, because they provide another piece of gear to apply essences to, but you can reach elemental caps without the shield, you just achieve this a little bit earlier with it. So yeah, if you want to roleplay, sure, otherwise stay away. The dmg you loose is substantial and the survivability you gain is non-existent.
2.10 Personality
• Bartering - I like to have a lot of gold. The description is wrong and from my experience you sell things for approximately 4% better price and you buy 4% more cheaply. You can get +1 from boots and +1 from amulet (I have never seen it on anything else). You can also get +1 from Egostical trait if you want to. So I think that getting +1 from a single ability point spend is not the worst, but you can definitely get by without this. Some people like to have a companion that specializes in this and just switch to
them when they want to sell or buy stuff. That is not a terrible idea, but only main characters get Reputation so your companion will always suffer a bit more despite having high Bartering. I never put a single point in this and I never really have gold problems, I shop for what I want every level and it only gets better as the game progresses.
• Charisma - You are more persuasive. I always craft +Charisma gear (two rings, a belt and a necklace for a total of +4 bonus). That is more than enough for me to have a good chance of convincing someone to do what I want. Sure I fail some conversation check from time to time when I am not prepared, but I do not particularly care. If you are the type that wants to convince anyone about everything then sure, knock yourself out and put some points here, otherwise no need to bother.
• Leadership - Now this is the good stuff. You can get +1 from Righteous trait and +1 from helmets (no worries they are plentiful and you can even craft some using Magical Starfish). At Leadership 6 you get immunity to Feared, +1 Bodybuilding, +1Willpower, +7 armor rating, +5% crit chance, +10 Initiative, +10% dmg and +15% chance to hit. I mean if one member of your party invests 10 ability points than 1-3 other members get all of these benefits. That is crazy good if you ask me. I never play without this. Normally I always use one character to get this to 6 as soon as I can. You can also find a +1Leadership bonus on crossbows, so technically you can get this just for a 6 ability point investment if you put it on a crossbow character, it does not get much better than this. If you need to push +1Willpower at a later level it costs 3-4 ability points but with this you get +1Willpower, +1Bodybuilding for EVERYONE except the leader and many other bonuses to boot. It is one of the best investments in the game. I remember playing early game without this, it was always so hard because enemies always CCd or really hurt my party (or both).
With this? I always go first and put the hurt on them. Some of the fights I could not beat before turned into a total breeze with this.
• Lucky Charm - Finding more stuff is nice, but like I said with Bartering.
I never had gold issues, so I just do not think that this warrants any investment.
2.11 Craftsmanship
• Blacksmithing - This allows you to create and improve weapons and armor.
Get it. It is one of the best ways to make gold later in the game and you also can make/improve really good stuff for yourself. If you are playing a double Lone Wolf playthrough. You get +1 from bracers and +1 from a belt. That means you need to invest 6 ability points. Totally worth it. If you are not playing double Lone Wolf playthrough just choose a companion that you do not like to use for battle and switch to him when
